My Cake

In the interest of full disclosure, I do not cook. Ever. When Paul was in San Antonio last weekend for the Big 12 Championship game, I made him go stock up on macaroni and cheese and frozen pizza for me to eat while he was gone. Paul is the cook in the family, and it's a darn good thing.

I do, however, have three majorly yummy recipes that I trot out for parties, entertaining, bring-a-snack-to-work days, etc. These items are as follows:

1. Spicy Nuts. Very simple, very flavorful. Adapted from a well-known chef's published recipe. Everyone loves them--except my dad, who says they are a waste of good old plain mixed nuts.

2. Bruschetta. This recipe is of my own devising, based on truly amazing concoction of my favorite local Italian restaurant, Ti Amo. I asked them once about their recipe, and they refused to give me specifics (which I totally understand), but they did tell me it has 23 ingredients. Years and years of trying to duplicate the flavor, and I am still only up to between 9 and 13 ingredients in my version. My version is still pretty damn tasty though.

3. French butter cake. Published in a cookbook by the same chef as #1, this is a simple, four-ingredient cake with the taste and consistency of shortbread. I am making it tonight for my Bunko group's holiday party tomorrow night.

Obviously a well-used page.


All the ingredients whirrling in the mixer...


...turns into a sticky mess.


And then it's spread in the cake pan and marked with fork lines, then gets popped in the oven. Yum! The cake is still baking and Project Runway is about to begin, so you may see a photo of the finished product next post.


My policy on these extraordinary recipes is that I do not share them. With anyone. My sister-in-law begged me for my recipe for spicy nuts for years, and I steadfastly refused. The day before she left Tulsa to move to Michigan, I wrote it down for her. I have so few things to work with, I don't want any competition!

I'm sure at least one of my many astute readers will figure out my source material for Numbers 1 and 2. All I ask is that you keep it to yourself and hope we don't show up at the same potluck!

As for knitting, I am working on the same old projects. Sadly, I found out that 2 of the 3 Malabrigo hat recipients...don't wear hats. So I have two extras and that makes me sad.

I started some Go With The Flow socks in the Yarntini Pomtini I won in a blog contest. I absolutely love this yarn. It's the best.